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RESEARCH CENTERS

National Tire Research Center (Created in 2010, Opened in 2013; Mr. Frank Della Pia, Director) The center was created by VTTI in alliance with the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, General Motors, and the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Com mission. A custom-built, force-and-moment tire test machine provides data about torque and braking capabilities, including tire performance on wet road conditions. Lab results can be further tested on the adjacent Virginia International Raceway, a closed-course circuit. General Motors and its suppliers are committed to conducting tire testing at the center for two years from com mencement of operation. Allocable machine time beyond these needs is available for third-party or Virginia Tech projects.

Groups and Initiatives

I-81 Corridor Coalition (Created in 2011; Mr. Kevin Cole, Interim Director)

photo by LoganWallace

The coalition includes state, local, nonprofit, and private organizations committed to making Inter state 81 a safe, efficient, environmentally sensitive, economically viable, and intermodal transporta tion corridor. Research interests include freight movement, truck safety, intermodal relationships, environmental planning, and corridor-wide information and coordination efforts. Automated Vehicle Systems (Created in 2013; Dr. Myra Blanco, Group Leader) The initiative pursues an interdisciplinary approach to studying all aspects related to the automa tion life cycle in the transportation field, including planning and policy and the production of au tomated vehicles. The growth and variety of automated vehicles should be anchored in a scientific approach that emphasizes safety, security, reliability, and user acceptance. Research projects focus on collision warning interfaces, collision avoidance systems, and driver transitioning into and out of automated driving states. Motorcycle Research Group (Created in 2007; Dr. Shane McLaughlin, Group Leader) The group was born from a history in transportation research; concern about increasing numbers of motorcyclist fatalities and injuries; and the excitement of a large number of VTTI engineers, staff, researchers, and family who are riders. The group focuses on riders and their machines while considering other factors in the surrounding transportation system. Group researchers are con ducting the first large-scale naturalistic motorcycle study, the aim of which is to explore motorcycle crash causation and to develop crash countermeasures. Center for Automotive Safety Research (Retired) After serving as the incubator for several VTTI research centers, center directors, and key research ers, the Center for Automotive Safety Research (created in 2005) was retired in 2013. The center specialized in researching the causes of automobile crashes and ways to prevent them. It was also designed to assess advanced vehicle technologies. Within this center, naturalistic driving, on-road, and test-track studies were used in combination with data mining to answer new research ques tions and improve transportation safety. The size and success of this center led to its retirement and spawned the development of the following three new research centers: the Center for Advanced Automotive Research, the Center for Data Reduction and Analysis Support, and the Center for Vulnerable Road User Safety.

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